glee

See also: Glee, and g'lée

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: glē, IPA^(key): /ɡliː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː

Etymology 1

From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw (“glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīw, from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”).

Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew (“game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music”), Icelandic glý (“joy, glee, gladness”), Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, jest, scorn”). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c.

Noun

glee (countable and uncountable, plural glees)

1. (uncountable) Joy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.

   Synonyms: merriment, mirth, gaiety, gloat

   • 1968, “Sympathy for the Devil”, in The Rolling Stones (music), Beggars Banquet:

     I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made.

   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

2. (uncountable) Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
3. (singing, countable) An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices, not necessarily merry.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 23, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Sometimes they had glees, when Captain Strong’s chest was of vast service, and he boomed out in a prodigious bass, of which he was not a little proud.

Derived terms

• glee-beam
• glee club
• gleeful
• gleefully
• gleefulness
• gleeman
• gleesome
• gleewoman

 

Translations

Joy; merriment; mirth; gayety; particularly, the mirth enjoyed at a feast

• Arabic: بَهْجَة f (bahja)
• Bulgarian: радост (bg) f (radost), веселие (bg) n (veselie), ликуване (bg) n (likuvane)
• Catalan: alegria (ca) f, joia (ca) f
• Czech: radost (cs) f, veselí (cs) n
• Dutch: vrolijkheid (nl)
• Esperanto: ĝojo
• Finnish: ilo (fi), riemu (fi)
• French: joie (fr) f
• Galician: gozo, pracer (gl)
• Georgian: მხიარულება (mxiaruleba), ზეიმი (zeimi)
• German: Freude (de) f, Fröhlichkeit (de) f, Ausgelassenheit (de) f
• Greek: ευωχία (el) f (evochía)
• Italian: gioia (it) f, allegria (it) f
• Norwegian: glede (no) m
• Persian: شادی (fa)
• Plautdietsch: Freid f
• Polish: radość (pl) f, zadowolenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: alegria (pt)
• Russian: ликова́ние (ru) n (likovánije), весе́лье (ru) n (vesélʹje), ра́дость (ru) f (rádostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: veselje (sh), likovanje
• Spanish: alegría (es) f
• Swedish: glädje (sv) c, fröjd (sv) c, munterhet (sv) c
• Ukrainian: радість f (radistʹ), веселощі (veselošči)

Music; minstrelsy; entertainment

• German: Rundgesang m
• Portuguese: música (pt), canção (pt)
• Russian: му́зыка (ru) f (múzyka), развлече́ния (ru) n pl (razvlečénija)

An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices

• German: Rundgesang m
• Russian: пе́сня (ru) f (pésnja), песнопе́ние (ru) n (pesnopénije)

Etymology 2

From Middle English gleen, glewen, from Old English glēowian (“to sing, play an instrument, jest”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīwōn, from Proto-Germanic *glīwōną. Cognate with Icelandic glýja (“to be gleeful”).

Verb

glee (third-person singular simple present glees, present participle gleeing, simple past and past participle gleed)

1. To sing a glee (unaccompanied part song).

Anagrams

• Egle, Lege, lege

Limburgish

Noun

glee f

1. something that is wet because it has been pasted together

See also

• èpperglieëdjómme

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German klein, kleine, from Old High German kleini, from Proto-Germanic *klainiz (“shining, fine, splendid, tender”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to cleave, stick”). Compare German klein, Dutch klein.

Adjective

glee

1. small